Running last night only 3miles into run experienced great pain in my calve had to walk home, this morning still very sore, can’t walk very well. Sure seems like more than a cramp. Anyone experience something like this?
Calf?
Maybe u tore a muscle or tendon?
qrguy
I put out a request for information on the exact issue about 2 weeks ago. Do a search and it should come up. One person was good enough to copy a article from a running magazine that discussed the problem.
I tried 3 mile run/walk over the weekend. This was 2 1/2 weeks out from the injury and the calf was sore. I am going to wait at least another week to try again.
Use ice and don’t stretch the calf is my experience so far.
John
Thanks for the reply
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You need to be really, really careful coming back from this one. I pulled my calf in the first race of 2009 and basically lost the entire season due to injury, reinjury, etc. Bottom line, take a lot more time off running than you think. Swimming obviously ok. Bike ok for most people, most calf injuries–make sure you are one of the most. I biked through it all with no problem.
Welcome to the world of foam rollers, TP therapy, massage, self-massage, the stick, compression socks, compression guards, obsessive stretching (if you believe in stretching–I do), mad-calf disease etc. You have a lot of peers in this new world.
I finally got over my cycle of injury, reinjury by taking 6 weeks off, going to a PT, and COMING BACK VERY SLOWLY. Going to a PT was key for me, but most people probably don’t need to go that far–but I did mainly because it forced me to take the 6 weeks off.
For more than a year I walked for 10 minutes before every single run except multisport races. The good news is that you can move forward if you actually let the injury heal, I’m almost 2 years out now with no reoccurrence. It’s nice to be able to do intervals again!
Search the board, there have been a lot of posts on this. If you need additional info, pm me, will be glad to help if I can.
Phil
This exact same thing happened to me…and also to a friend. The sharp pain in my calf seemed to come out of nowhere, and I was freaked out and thought I had popped an MCL or something serious. What was worse was that it didn’t go away for 3 weeks.
My friend recommended an ART doctor (Active Release Techniques). I was skeptical, but supposedly this guy worked miracles. I went to him and he diagnosed a trapped nerve (apparently, the sciatic nerve goes all the way down your leg and then branches into your calf). In one 45 minute session, my calf went from 40% to maybe 90%, and it was 100% after 3 sessions.
Looks like you are in MO, so I’m sure you can find someone there if you google ART, but if you are in SF, I know a guy.
As you have already heard from many, it can be many things:
pulled muscle
nerve entrapement
strain
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned and is age/medication dependent, but it you have significant point tenderness, swelling, redness - you might want to double check you don’t have a blood clot. They do happen even in healthy people. Typically older adults (don’t know how old you are) or with certain medications. I was at 17,000’ on Denali when a climbing partner complained of calf pain. We’d had a tough day, so we all thought it was a strain, certainly behaved that way! But wasn’t resolving…started questioning…he got home, ultrasound confirmed clots.
Yes it is unlikely, but if it is not resolving or improving (even a little), get checked.